Explore "Colors" by Stephen Vincent Benet on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(For D. M. C.)
The little man with the vague beard and guise / Pulled at the wicket. "Come inside! " he said, / "I'll show you all we've got now -- it was size / You wanted? -- oh, dry colors! Well" -- he led / To a dim alley lined with musty bins, / And pulled one fiercely. Violent and bold / A sudden tempest of mad, shrieking sins / Scarlet screamed out above the battered gold / Of tins and picture-frames. I held my breath.
He tugged another hard -- and sapphire skies / Spread in vast quietude, serene as death, / O'er waves like crackled turquoise -- and my eyes / Burnt with the blinding brilliance of calm sea!
"We're selling that lot there out cheap! " said he.